Auscultation is the act of listening to sounds within the body as a method of diagnosis. A stethoscope is an example of an auscultation device that is used in the medical field to listen to internal sounds in the human body, such as for example heart sounds, breathing (breath sounds), intestinal noises, and blood flow in arteries and veins. Acoustic stethoscopes operate on the transmission of sound from a head piece, via air-filled hollow tubes, to the listener's ears. The head piece may include a diaphragm that can be placed against a human body for sensing sound. Body sounds vibrate the diaphragm, creating acoustic pressure waves that travel up the tubing to the listener's ears.
Using a stethoscope or other auscultation device to diagnosis a patient requires training in detecting and identifying the abnormal auditory findings. Standardized patients are a valuable training tool in Medical Education and have been extensively researched. Though standardized patients give students one-on-one interaction with real patients, most standardized patients do not have abnormal physical findings. As a result, simulators and mannequins are often used to train or test students on auscultation devices, such as stethoscopes. Auscultation training mannequins may include a sound generating device embedded within the body of the mannequin to produce sounds consist with an abnormal physical condition, which students must detect and identify.